[HPforGrownups] CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 12, The Mirror of Erised

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 188491

 Ignore my last response (now deleted).  My son asked me a question and I
inadvertently clicked on "send".

>1. Who did you think the Invisibility Cloak was from?

After Dumbledore reveals himself at the Mirror of Erised (if not before), I
was convinced it was from Dumbledore.

>2. Filch says that Snape asked him to inform him if anyone was prowling the
corridors at night- what did you think of this the first time you read it?
Who did you think that Snape might suspect would be out of bed?

I'm sure Snape had his eye on Hary, his new celebrity, although in
retrospect he obviously was on the lookout for Quirrell as well.

>3. Dumbledore says later that he didn't get the idea to use the Mirror of
Erised to hide the stone until after Harry's encounter with it- so why was
it in the school or in that classroom to begin with? What do you think is
the origin of the Mirror?

I expect the Mirror has long been at Hogwarts, and that Dumbledore himself
once spent long hours looking at his family in the mirror.

>4. Harry sees at least ten members of his family in the mirror. Two are his
parents, and we can assume that four are his grandparents. Who do you think
the remaining four-plus people are, and what happened to them? How could
such a large family all die so young in the wizarding world, leaving Harry
alone?

I assumed they were ancestors.

>5. Did you expect Ron to grow up to be Head Boy and Quidditch Captain? Do
you think he might have if events had unfolded differently and Voldemort
hadn't returned?

As Harry's vision could not come true in any literal sense, I did not expect
Ron's to be realized either.  The lesson for Ron to learn was to be himself
instead of believing he had to surpass his brothers to be respected.  He
didn't really internalize this lesson until he destroyed the locket.  If
events had unfolded differently he might not have learned this lesson at
all, and I think Head Boy requires more.  And Harry already owned
the Quidditch Captain job.

>7. Did you believe Dumbledore when he said he saw himself holding socks in
the mirror? What were your theories on what he might have seen?

I believed him.  However, once I learned that Hogwarts employed house elves
to do the dirty work, I developed a theory that the image of Dumbledore
holding socks was a metaphor for his desire to bring the outcasts and
underlings of the wizarding world into full participation in the WW and that
someday he would (at least metaphorically) hurl the socks into the Hogwarts
kitchen to free them.
Debbie


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